The Devil Made Me Do IT!

The Conscience and the Holy Spirit

The heart contains a number of internal prompters but some of them lead children in the wrong direction. For example, the heart contains emotions, but sometimes those emotions prompt children to act inappropriately. The heart contains desires but when those desires are wrong we call them temptations.

God has placed two governors in the heart to guide the internal motivations of a person. Those two governors are the conscience and the Holy Spirit. The conscience is a part of the heart. The Holy Spirit is a person. The conscience can prompt children to do right or avoid wrong, but the Holy Spirit can empower them to change.

As you help children develop a strong conscience you’re making them more aware of internal promptings. In doing so, you’ll be preparing them to learn to listen to the voice of God in their lives.

We have no record of the conscience speaking in the Bible. Instead, it feels good or bad, but the Holy Spirit does speak. Children can learn to listen to the voice of God in their lives. How does God speak to a child? Through his Word, through an internal sense of peace, through prayer, and even through parents.

Talk to your kids about the internal prompters. When you do, help them to know what to do with those promptings. Just because you feel like doing something, doesn’t make it right. We must always check our hearts against the scriptures. That’s the only way to know what is truly the right thing to do.

This tip comes to you from http://www.biblicalparenting.org/

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When you talk through what a child feels, and you identify what they are feeling as a temptation, help them to identify what triggers that temptation and to create steps to avoid it or flee from it. Children can eventually construct this level of reason themselves, but until then, clear and concise identification and steps to get through something is needed. Be on the look out for teachable moments and take advantage of them.
Some good memory verses for them to use are:

Mark 14:38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

James1: 13-14 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Enjoy your kids.
Brenda